Tom Hardy Talks Reinvented Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

The first new cast member announced to be joining Christopher Nolan’s third Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, was that of Inception fan favorite, Tom Hardy. After months of speculation and rumors about who he might play, it was eventually confirmed that Hardy is playing Bane, and not the widely-speculated Dr. Hugo Strange.

Since then, moviegoers and Bat-fans everywhere have been anxiously speculating on how Nolan would adapt Bane to fit into his Batman universe, knowing it would be vastly different than the mindless brute from Batman & Robin. Tom Hardy and his tattoos made an appearance on the Alan Carr: Chatty Man talk show this evening where they briefly (and humorously) touched on the subject of Hardy’s casting in The Dark Knight Rises and his character.

In the following video clip, Hardy remains tight-lipped about Bane’s mask when asked about it, but he does say you can completely ignore the previous film version of Bane and that he’s still needing to gain a lot of weight to play the character. With his need to bulk up even more, it’s emphasized that Bane will of course remain a physical presence against Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. We can assume Nolan will play up the intellectual side of the character as well which is needed would be refreshing.

Watch and enjoy:

Tom Hardy’s hesitation and joke about the mask can be taken any which way, but I’m betting that he does sport some sort of costume and/or mask when his Bane is in transformed beat-down-the-bat mode.

Tom Hardy bulked up Bane-style for Bronson

The Dark Knight Rises is directed by Christopher Nolan off of David Goyer’s story. Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne alongside franchise familiars Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine. On the new cast members side of things, Tom Hardy is joined by Anne Hathaway and there’s still talk of Joseph Gordon-Leviit and Marion Cotillard also joining Batman 3 but those reports/rumors have yet to be confirmed or made official. So, it’s not an Inception reunion just yet.